Severely handicapped after negligence by a hospital, the little girl cannot receive appropriate care, because justice is deaf to her suffering.
Jade’s nightmare begins in October 2015. The 2.5-year-old girl is admitted to the pediatric emergency room at the Besançon University Hospital for violent vomiting. The head of the pediatric surgery department diagnoses an occlusion. Later, Christelle Grecea, Jade’s mother, will learn that her daughter had a volvulus (turning of the digestive tract on itself). The surgeon considers that it is not necessary to operate on the little girl and goes home.
“She was dying all night, explains Christelle, who was then working in this hospital as a hospital services officer. At 4:30 a.m., an intensive care doctor said to the interns: ‘Can’t you see that she is in the process of to leave ?'” Six hours after her admission to the emergency room, Jade loses consciousness and is transferred to pediatric intensive care. Ten minutes later, she suffered a cardiac arrest. “After 25 minutes of CPR, we heard the surgeon say, ‘We’re going to stop the CPR because there’s nothing more to be done. “They let us in. We were saying to our daughter, crying, ‘Jade, don’t go. You’re going to be 3 years old soon and you’re going to see Santa Claus.'”
The neurological sequelae are very heavy
As if she had heard the messages of love from her parents, Jade found heart activity 2 minutes later. Taken to the operating room, she is taken care of by the surgeon: she suffers from a perforation of the stomach. The next six weeks will be very trying for the little girl, hospitalized in intensive care. Her parents do not leave her for a moment. It is once the little girl is back at home that they all measure the extent of the damage caused by the cardiac arrests.
“Jade no longer spoke, drooled and did not follow us with her eyes”, explains Christelle. For nearly half an hour, the girl’s brain was deprived of oxygen. And the neurological sequelae are very heavy. Today, Jade is 8 years old and her disabilities are serious. “She suffers from cortical blindness and cerebral palsy, says her mother. She behaves blind. She is unable to stand on her own and has to move around in a wheelchair.” Schooled in CP, Jade is helped by a school life assistant and followed by a specialized educator, an occupational therapist, a psychomotor therapist and a physiotherapist. “But it’s not about intensive care. In France, we maintain the disability, we don’t treat it”regrets Christelle Grecea.
She must go to Slovakia to benefit from oxygen therapy
With her husband, this courageous mother therefore went abroad so that their daughter could benefit from appropriate care. “We have been going to Slovakia so that Jade follows oxygen therapy sessions in particular, but it is very expensive”, she regrets. As their lawyer, Me Julie Prével, who works in the law firm of Me Jehanne Collard et Associés, specializing in victims’ rights, explains, they discovered another obstacle course: that of recognizing the medical malpractice and compensation for its consequences.
“A first expert report held that the staff of the hospital center had committed several errors. A first judge requested additional expertise which confirmed that the hospital center was responsible for the condition of little Jade.explains Me Julie Prével. “The public rapporteur concluded that the hospital center was liable and condemned it to pay a large advance on the compensation for the little one. Against all odds, 24 hours later, a third judge indicated that he did not see fault on the part of the hospital. He ordered a third expertise. We have of course appealed against this decision”adds Me Julie Prével.
“We need this compensation so that Jade can be cared for while she is still young”explains Christelle Grecea who, with her husband, created the association L’Espoir pour Jade and launched a kitty on Leetchi in order to pay the legal costs and the care of her daughter abroad. “My two other children are also suffering a lot and our life will not be never the same again. Jade needs recognition and so do we. Our only goal is to give it a chance“, concludes the mother who holds at arm’s length a whole family.
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